The Vanderbilt Vision Research Center (WRC) includes faculty in the College of Arts & Science, Peabody College of Education, School of Engineering and School of Medicine. The high level of performance of WRC researchers derived from Core grant support also synergizes with campus-wide investments in biomedical research and training at Vanderbilt. We request continued support for five cores. (1) The Animal Care Core provides specialized surgical support and veterinary care of nonhuman primates and other large animals and murine electroretinogram phenotyping. (2) The Computer Core provides hardware installation and maintenance, software development for visual displays and real-time data acquisition and analysis, and webpage maintenance and data acquisition. (3) The Imaging Core facilitates acquisition and analysis of functional brain imaging, optical imaging, confocal and standard microscopy and other imaging data. (4) The Gene & Protein Analysis Core provides timely and economical access to genomic, proteomic and histology services. (5) The Shop Core designs, fabricates and repairs specialized optical, mechanical and electronic instruments. Administrative support ensures continued smooth and stable operation of the WRC research and training missions. Cores are directed by investigators with history of NEI funding, have talented and experienced staff and provide services that are otherwise not available or would be prohibitively expensive or slow. During the last grant period more than three NEI-funded investigators used each core at least moderately. WRC investigators produced five hundred publications that made fundamental contributions to basic and clinical visual science. This Core grant has increased collaborations within and between basic and clinical vision researchers across the Vanderbilt campus and with other institutions. This Core grant has enhanced recruitment of world-class eye and vision researchers resulting in continued extensive NEI-sponsored research at Vanderbilt. PUBLICH HEALTH RELEVANCE: The research facilitated by this Core grant seeks to improve our understanding of the eye and visual system in normal and diseased states. This knowledge will be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of visual impairments.